Thursday, May 11, 2006

How the AL Central Teams Rank

In past weeks, I showed how the Tigers ranked in various hitting, pitching and fielding categories compared to 2005.This week, I’ll take a look at the entire American League Central division in 2005.The Table below shows how the teams rank among the 14 American League teams.Here are the highlights:

The White Sox are in the top 5 in every single category so it’s not surprising that they are in first place.They are 2nd in run prevention (runs allowed) and 4th in run production (runs scored) and have shown no weakness up to this point.

The Tigers lead the league in run prevention but are only 7th in run production.They are 2nd in the league in pitching (FIP) and first in fielding (DER).Offensively, they lead the league in power but do not get on base that much (7th).

The Indians lead the league in run production but are 12th in run prevention.They are first in runs created and better than average in every offensive category.Their pitching is 5th in the league according to FIP but they are 12th in fielding.I think their pitching has been a little worse than the FIP indicates but it does seem as if much of their run prevention problem is due to poor defense.

The Twins are below average in every category except FIP (4th).Like the Indians, I believe their pitching is a little worse than FIP says.I think the big differences between FIP and ERA for those teams will even out a little as the season goes along.

The Royals are awful in every category except fielding (8th in the league).So, it’s no mystery why they are 10-22.